Rainbow Over Sunnydale Chapter 5
Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Josh Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone else belongs to me. I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.
Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.
Authors note: I am adjusting the Buffy time line slightly "Never Leave Me" happened just before the start of the story. I am moving things back about a month.
Authors note 2: Thanks to The Admiral has pointed out I got Ms. Elliot's first name wrong, its Elizabeth or Liz.
Thanks for correction I will go back and fix it
Authors note 3: A number of my beta readers have pointed out that The University of California at Sunnydale should be abbreviated as UCS. The U of C Sacramento already takes that abbreviation. Like wise UCSD is taken by San Diego. So the Dale will remain UCD.
Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington DC
25 Oct 2002
1630 Hours
Bob Holtzman was an investigative reporter/columnist for the Washington Post. He was walking around the fence that surrounded the White House as he made his way to the back gate. He had received a call from one of his sources inside the White House that the President was meeting with most of his Senior Cabinet, and that the meeting had been called for by one of the cabinet.
He had hurried down to see if he might be able to catch any latecomers. Up ahead he saw a car pull in the back gate of the White House, he stopped and watched as it drove up to a back door and 3 people got out. One he recognized as Joe Spano, Tony Brentano's right hand man. The other two he didn't, both were tall, one a blond haired man, the other a red haired female. He raised his camera and got about 10 or 15 frames off before they disappeared inside. He took a couple more pictures after they had entered the building in case anyone was watching.
Bob stood there and thought. If the SecDef was bringing in the breifers for this meeting then they were probably military too. So he turned and started heading down the street, he would hit the Library of Congress and check out the Service Academy yearbooks and see if he could find the two-mystery guests in them. In the back of his mind he was fairly certain he had seen the red head before, he just could not put his finger on it. If the Library were a bust he would try the face recognition technology they had just installed at the Post and see if it could find anything. If not then he had other sources he could draw on.
Inside the Oval Office
Washington DC
25 Oct 2002
1635 Hours
Ben and Andrea arrived about 2 minutes before the Finns and were given the briefest of explanations, they were watching the Price Video as Riley and Samantha Finn were escorted into the room.
The President invited them to take a seat and introduced them to the people present ending with, "This is Dr. Ben Goodly my National Security Advisor, and Andrea Price-O'Day head of my Secret Service detail."
"Glad to meet you Mr. President, Gentlemen and Ladies." Riley Finn answered. "I am Riley Finn, this is my wife Samantha." The Finns then sat down facing the President.
Looking at the President for permission, which he received Colonel McCloud began. "Agent Finn, General Billingsly has deserted with Teams One and Two. Secretary of Defence Bretano relieved him after the recent war with China. Pending a review by competent authority he has been relived of command and I have assumed command of the Initiative. I am here by placing Team Three on alert status." Colonel McCloud breathed a mental sigh of relief when no one contradicted his assumption of command.
"Sir our team is on a full stand down. It will take a three to five days to get the alert to everyone."
Riley said.
"Sir, with your permission I will start making the calls to the people we can reach." Sam said starting to get up.
"Sit." Ryan ordered. "I want you here for the briefing. You can start calling people when it's done."
Both Riley and Sam nodded and Sam sat back into her chair. "Do you have any idea's where he has gone?" Riley wanted to know.
"Where he is now, no. But we believe that he is heading for Sunnydale." The Colonel answered.
"He's going to go after the Hellmouth?" Sam asked.
"We believe that is what he is after." McCloud replied. "You should also know that the President was not briefed in on our activities until today."
"What?" Riley exclaimed.
"Article 12." Sam said. Seeing the look of confusion in her husband's face she went on. "'If an administration is changed in a suspicious manner then it is the responsibility of the officer in charge of the Initiative to decide who should or should not be informed of the Initiative's existence or operations.' With how Mr. Ryan became President you can almost see his point. Sorry Sir."
She said apologizing to Ryan who waved it off.
"I know what Article 12 states Sam. General Billingsly told me 6 months ago that he had informed the President and Congress of our activities. I threatened to quit if he did not. He told me we had."
"Did you verify that Mr. Finn?" Mary Pat Foley asked.
"No, I trusted my superior officer to tell me the truth." Finn said quietly.
"The General never mentioned that conversation to me." Colonel McCloud said. "However he did order a security check done on the Finns at about that time. He said it was to check on Samantha's security clearance. They both passed with flying colors, in fact she scored higher than you did."
"Not surprising since she has never gone UA." Riley joked. Then turning serious.
"What would you like to know Sir?"
"Colonel McCloud has said that we should hold our Sunnydale questions for you Mr. Finn as you where actually there." Ryan began. "To start with I was wondering what assets we have guarding this Hellmouth."
"We do not have anything guarding it currently." Riley replied, seemingly unconcerned.
"What?!" Dan Murray almost shouted. "There is a gateway to hell and it's left unguarded?"
"I never said it was unguarded Mr. Murray." Riley said. "I just said that we didn't."
"Then who is guarding it?" POTUS wanted to know.
"A vampire slayer." Riley replied.
"Is that a title or a job description?" Ed Foley wondered.
"Both." Riley responded. Then seeing his answer did not go over well he went on. "A vampire slayer is a chosen warrior for the side of good. Lets see how did it go?" He paused trying to remember what Giles had told him once. " 'One Girl in all the world with the strength and speed to hunt the vampire, to stop the spread of evil.' Or something like that."
"So there is only one of these Slayers?" Ryan wanted to know, "And is she defending this place by her self?"
"Right now there are two." Riley said.
Ryan dropped the pencil he had been toying with as soon as he heard that there were two slayers and looked Riley straight in the eye. "Mr. Finn, I am an easy man to work for but one thing I hate, I mean really hate, is having to play 20 questions with a briefer!" Ryan growled.
"I'm sorry sir, I'll try to be more concise." Riley apologized then going on, "She also is not alone in her defence of the Hellmouth. She has a group of people, her friends and associates who assist her in its defence. They are a diverse and effective group. As far as there being two slayers currently; originally there was only one Slayer. The slayer in Sunnydale died briefly in her sophomore year. She was almost immediately revived by an associate but it was still long enough to activate the next slayer."
"Where is this other slayer right now, do you know?" Asked the president.
"She was killed the year after she was called. Slayers do not have a great life expectancy, another was called when that one died but the new one went rouge and is serving time in a California prison."
"For?" Mary Pat prompted.
"Multiple murders that she committed while working for The Mayor of Sunnydale." Riley said.
"The Mayor of Sunnydale had a professional assassin working for him?" Dan Murray asked.
"Yes he was a sorcerer and had been around since before the turn of the century. He incorporated Sunnydale to provide a feeding ground for him when he turned himself into a demon." Riley explained. Then he went on. "We did not know who or what he was when we first set up shop. We had been ordered by the oversight committee to stay out of Sunnydale proper, that is to limit our activities to the UCD campus and its area. One of the senior committee members had Sunnydale in his district. He was killed by Sato in the crash."
"I take it he did not succeed in his attempts to become a demon." Ryan commented.
"Yes, Sir he did." Riley answered. "But the Slayer and her graduating class mates stopped him. He managed to transform himself but Buffy got him to chase her back into the school that they had rigged to explode. He was destroyed in the blast."
"Is this Buffy the Slayer?" Ryan asked. Then went on, "You said she was killed in her sophomore year. Did you mean college or high school?"
"Buffy Summers is the Slayers name, and she died in High School." Riley replied.
"My God she was what 16 or 17 at the time?" Ryan asked aghast. "How long has she been doing this?"
"She was called when she was 15 sir. She is 23 now."
"How was she called?" Robby wanted to know. "And how did they know when she died to call the others?"
"I don't know Mr. Vice President. I asked when I was with Buffy. She did not know how a slayer is chosen. If Giles did he did not say."
"Giles?" Ryan asked.
"Rupert Giles was Buffy's Watcher. A watcher is a mentor to the slayer, also the representative of the Watcher Council; they are based in England right now. By the time I knew her Buffy had quit the council over several incidents."
"So why was this Giles still around?" Asked Andrea Price.
"Buffy and Giles have a very close relationship almost father/daughter. One of the bones of contention between the Slayer and the council was an incident when Buffy turned 18. She never went into details but the result was the council fired Giles. I never met the replacement but it's my understanding that he performed less than brilliantly. Buffy blames him chiefly for Faith, the other slayer, going rouge. Or at least for the situation getting out of hand."
"Did you ever meet any of the council, or do you know how to contact them?" Ryan asked.
"No." Riley replied.
"What is Buffy's family situation if this guy is the father figure in her life?" Arnie Van Damm asked.
"Buffy's parents are divorced, the mother is dead, and the father is living in Europe somewhere. They have not had contact in several years. She has a younger sister." Riley told the Chief of Staff.
"Let me understand this," Ryan said. "She's raising a sister and in her spare time saving the world?"
"Yes sir."
"What does she do for a job?" Ryan wanted to know.
"When I saw her last year she was working at a fast food place."
"WHAT!!!!!!!" Ryan exploded.
"She has bills to pay sir." Riley explained, "With the council cutting her off when she quit, she has to make ends meet somehow."
Ryan was clearly not happy with this state of affairs but there were other things to be settled first. "Will the Slayer in Sunnydale help us with this problem?" Ryan asked.
Riley looked a little uncomfortable but as he was about to answer Sam spoke up. "I think it will be more likely that we will be helping her sir."
"I don't understand, are you saying that she is that capable?"
Riley looked over at Colonel McCloud and spying the brief case that the colonel had brought with him he asked, "Did you bring a copy of training tape '018 with you sir?"
"Yes I did." The Colonel said as he reached for his briefcase. "This is a video of the Slayer in a training exercise against two of the Initiative's capture teams"
Riley explained. "We were in Sunnydale for almost a year before we became aware of her. We were operating mostly outside of the town itself around the UCD campus; she on the other hand had been concentrating on patrolling in the town itself so we did not cross paths.
When she started her freshman year she moved onto campus and we began interacting while on patrol. We did not even realize that what she was, or even that the Slayer was real and not just a bogeyman invented by the HST's to scare their children until we literally tripped over each other during a mission. She volunteered to join the Initiative and help out. Dr. Walsh wanted some kind of a benchmark of what she was capable of so she set up this test. She was given a 5-minute head start then two of our best capture teams would attempt to capture her. Team One was made up of 3 soldiers that had finished in the top 15% of their Ranger training, and were lead by a class mate of mine in Army Special Forces Officers School. Team Two had 2 SEAL's, An Army Special Forces trooper, and was lead by an ex-platoon leader of Marine Recon Team 3."
Riley Finn started the video player. He had been there when this was made so instead of watching the tape he watched the reaction of the people in the room to the video. He started with the President, he was watching the tape with interest, Riley could tell exactly when the squad found Buffy, his eyes widened with surprise, and he leaned forward to get a better look at the screen. Next to him the VP grunted with surprise, ah the bodies must be flying now. Now! Enter Buffy swinging. Cries of shock and amazement as the small figure in a puffy jacket and bluestocking cape exploded into view and started throwing larger soldiers around like straw dummies. The fight was over quick lasting only several seconds. When it was over everyone in the room let out a breath that they seem not to know that they had been holding.
"That was amazing." Andrea Price, Head of the President of the United States protective detail breathed.
"Yeah." Mary Pat Foley, Deputy Director, Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency agreed. Both women looked at each other and silently agreed; to the victor go the spoils.
"Can we see that again?" Pierre Alexander wondered. "I can't quite accept what I just saw. It does not seem possible that a women that small could throw men around like that."
Receiving permission from the President, Riley rewound the tape to the start of the fight and let it play through again. When it was over Dr. Alexander turned to the Finns and said. "When she was with the Initiative was any test performed to determine what gave her that kind of strength?"
"No Buffy was with The Initiative for only a brief time, the test you just saw was the only one that was able to be performed."
"Why did she quit?" Ben Goodly wondered.
"Dr. Walsh tried to have her killed." Riley replied matter of factley. Seeing that the group wanted to know more he continued. "She tried to set Buffy up. She told her that she wanted her to check out a low power demon contact. In reality she sent her after a pair of very high power demons. Picture grizzly bears with toothaches that are bipedal and carry battleaxes. The weapon she had been given was faulty so once she was locked in with the demons Dr. Walsh assumed her problems were solved. She based her assumption on what she saw in the tape. She did not realize that Buffy had taken it easy on the troops because she did not want to hurt anyone. So it was more of a case of the demons being locked in with Buffy, than she being locked in with them. She killed them both."
"She was holding back when she took out those two teams?!" Andrea gasped.
"She killed a couple of grizzlies hand to hand?!" MP choked out
"I fought that particular species, I think that the bears would be an easier kill." Riley returned. Then turning to Andrea Price-O'Day. "She was at about 2/3 speed Ms. Price"
Both Mary Pat and Andrea looked at each other again and scowled.
"Why did Dr. Walsh decide to have Ms. Summers killed?" Dan Murray wanted to know.
"We had encountered a wizard by the name of Ethan Rayne. He had informed Giles of something he called 314 that had the demon community stirred up. It turned out that Adam…," He paused but when he saw that they seemed to know what Adam was he continued. "….was being put together in Room 314 at our complex. Dr. Walsh concluded that when Buffy started asking about 314 that she knew something about what she and Dr. Angleman were working on. She concluded that Buffy was a threat to Adam and so she must be removed."
"Nice person." Robby Jackson snorted. "Must have went to the Darth Vader school of Personnel Management."
"That doesn't sound like the person I knew. " Pierre Alexander quietly said. " She lacked people skills sure but if you had asked me I would have said it would be impossible for her to set up some one to be killed."
"I did not think it was possible either," Riley responded. "I trusted and respected her. In return she experimented on us with drugs and hormones, she also implanted a control chip in my shoulder. Buffy had tried to tell me that something was not kosher in the Initiative but I would not listen until it was almost too late."
Pierre Alexander digested what Riley had told him. You could tell when it sunk in about Dr. Walsh experimenting on humans when a deep scowl formed on his face.
Ryan not wanting the discussion to be sidetracked by a medical ethics debate asked Riley. "Have you ever seen the Hellmouth Agent Finn?"
"Yes sir." I camped on top of it for two weeks when I went UA from the Initiative." Riley replied. "It doesn't look like much, just a crack in the floor."
"You went UA?" Mary Pat asked.
"Yes M'am, I found out that Buffy was right about what the Initiative was up too. I orginnaly agreed to stay inside to keep an eye on things. Unfortunately one of Buffy's acquaintances who was a werewolf was captured, and it was decided that they were going to vivisect him."
"Wait a minute!" Pierre Alexander shouted. "I have to except that people don't raise automatically by being bit by a vampire. But werewolves are something else. Any one bit by a were wolf becomes one right?"
"They do, the werewolf in question it is my understanding was bit by his infant cousin while baby sitting."
"That makes my point. Any one bit by one of these things becomes one. Geometric progression." He said as pushed his point home.
"One problem Dr. Alexander." Sam said almost gently.
"And that is?" The Surgeon General demanded.
"How many people do you think survive a werewolf attack?"
The Surgeon General pondered that for a second and, "Point to you M'am." The SG said sheepishly.
"Most werewolves lock themselves up during the full moon. There are those of course who embrace the wolf and become dangerous. The were in question had actually found a way to keep the wolf at bay, unless he experienced extreme emotions." Sam explained.
"How did you know he was a werewolf then?" Dan Murray asked.
"He found out his ex girlfriend had a girlfriend." Riley said. "That generated some strong emotions. He changed into his were form in the middle of the day in a hallway of UCD. He was captured almost immediately. Once I found out what was going to happen I made the decision to break him out and then stay low. Unfortunately the Co of the base didn't trust me and had me under surveillance. Buffy ended up having to break both of us out. After that I basically hid. Adam was able to use the chip that had been implanted in me to summon me to him. I was able to remove it and help in the fight to get people out of the complex. I was then given the option to receive a honorable discharge in return for my silence on what happened there."
"Why did you rejoin the Initiative?" Ed Foley asked.
"I was in a relationship with Buffy. Unfortunately as much as I loved her, she did not reciprocate. I have to admit that the fact I could not compete with her on a physical level had a little something to do with it too. In the end I was offered a chance to rejoin, I gave Buffy a chance to try to make a go of it, she did not take it." Riley explained quietly. "I met Sam down in Mexico when we were helping the Mexican Army with a Suvolte demon problem. Her Peace Corps group had been attacked, and Sam was the only survivor."
"What's a Suvolte demon?" Tony Brentano questioned.
"Have you ever seen the Saturday Night Live sketch with the Land Shark?" Sam answered.
"Sure."
"Okay cross a land shark with a tribble, and subtract about 100 points of IQ. That's a Suvolte Demon." Sam explained.
"They reproduce that fast?" Ben Bascome the Secret Service agent exclaimed! Then looked sheepish as everyone in the room turned to look at him. "Sorry Sir." He said sheepishly.
"No, No Ben. I think that is a wonderful question. If I remember what a tribble is from Star Trek." Ryan laughed. Then turning serious, "If you ever have something to add to this kind of briefing Agent Bascome please feel free. You would not be in this office if you were stupid, and sometimes the experts miss things."
"To answer the question sir." Riley began. "No they do not breed quite that fast. However like tribbles they are born pregnant and lay 12 eggs, so the rate that there population can explode is staggering. In this case a local drug lord had obtained a Suvolte egg on the black-market and decided to plant it in a competitors area of operations. The egg hatched and then bred."
"What happened?" Arnie Van Damm wanted to know.
"They ate the competition, and a couple of local villages, then moved in an ate his operation too. We had been loaned to the Mexican Government and managed to kill off the infestation. We followed and killed the last of them in Sunnydale last year." Riley finished.
"Okay, thanks for the quick overview Mr. Finn." Ryan began. "I am planning on sending you and your wife out to Sunnydale. I want you to reassemble your team and set up a guard on the Hellmouth. To assist you I am sending a top anti-terror team called Rainbow. They normally operate in Europe but have operated else where."
"The Men of Black. I think I could work with them." Riley smiled.
"You've heard of them?" Mary Pat Foley wanted to know.
"Yes, we keep an eye on all special forces/black ops teams for potential recruits." Riley answered. "They would be acceptable till I can get my team together."
"I have The CO of Rainbow and one of the team leaders standing by at Andrew's. When we are finished you and Sam will join them there and brief them on the way to Sunnydale." Ryan Ordered.
"Yes sir." Riley responded. "They will probably need to be equipped. We have some night vision and anti-HST equipment with us, which are stakes, crosses and holy water. They could probably use some shoulder arms."
"We can raid the HRT armory for basic equipment if we need to. I think the HRT 's load out is about the same as Rainbow." Dan Murray offered.
"Thanks Dan." Ryan said. "Have a basic load sent along to Andrews for John and Ding."
Dan went to the back of the room and used his cell phone to put a call into the duty desk at Quantico.
"I thought that bullets didn't hurt vampires and such." Andrea Price wanted to know.
"They don't kill vampires, but knee-capping one will slow it down a lot." Sam replied.
Andrea made a mental note of that piece of trivia.
"All right Agent Finn thank you for the over-view, now I want you to start when you were first approached by the Initiative and stop when you left for the White House today, and I would like you to make it as detailed as possible." Ryan ordered.
Riley Finn started talking, it took a while
After word: I want to thank again everyone who has reviewed my work. I can't tell you how good it makes me feel that someone likes what I am doing. I want to apologize about how long it took to get this chapter out but I was back in school, and had some computer problems.
I also want to thank everyone for their patience in waiting for Buffy appearance. Next chapter will be on to Sunnydale. Promise!